Meme: Twitter is Like…

I started a little meme on Twitter on Thursday, which David Free picked up on and posted about over on his blog, David’s Random Stuff. I thought I’d add a little (brief) backstory and fill in some of the tweets that David missed. (One of the interesting things about Twitter of course, is that depending on who we follow or who follows us, we all saw – or didn’t see- different responses. )

Like David, I’m not naming names, but I thought it would be interesting to add timestamps to give everyone an idea of how this played out chronologically. I think there were some brilliant comments, so I hope the authors step forward and take credit.

Brief backstory: Janie Hermann and I were chatting about the lack of recent posts on LG and Janie jokingly suggested that maybe Twitter, the great sucker of time, was to blame. I threw out the comment that “Twitter is like therapy… without the progress.” Janie suggested (dared?) that I share that thought on Twitter. I thought it might make for an interesting meme so seconds later (at 11:10) I threw it out there to the 50 or so people in my twitterverse. This is what transpired:

NEW TWITTER MEME: TWITTER IS LIKE… (I’ll go first) Twitter is like therapy… without the progress. (11:10)

Twitter is like ADD without the Ritalin (11:19)

Twitter is like Jaiku…. I’m bad at analogies (11:23)

Twitter is like whippits (11:24)

Twitter is like a celestial bulletin board. (11:24)

Twitter is like a crack addiction without all the mugging, prostitution, and running from the cops. (11:26)

Twitter is also like Paris Hilton: slutty and unfortunate. 11:26)

Twitter is like your drunk uncle at Christmas, sometimes you want the madness to stop, but you still wanna see where it’s going. (11:30)

Twitter is like passing notes during class. (11:31)

Twitter is like [name redacted] – You don’t like it until you try it (11:32)

twitter is like the background noise of the universe, kind of a low murmur that lets you know you’re not alone (aww!) (11:37)

Twitter is like cheating on your blog (11:38)

Twitter is like crack for procrastinators. (11:41)

Twitter is like sex without a condom. Sure it’s fun, but you will probably regret it later. (11:42)

Twitter is like…. so. y’know. … What was I doing? (11:43)

Twitter is like compressed infobursts, effin ay! (11:45)

Heck, Twitter *is* compressed infobursts (11:45)

Twitter is like an inside joke: no one gets why you do it unless they do it (11:46)

Twitter is like sucking out my braaains… (11:46)

Twitter is like being stuck in a massive kaleidoscope- ooh something shiny! (11:56)

Twitter is like drinks with @dwfree – makes you feel all nice and warm inside (12:04)

Twitter is like drunk sex w/ a friend: not nearly as intimate as you expected it to be, but still sexy & satisfying. (12:04)

Twitter is like drunk sex w/[the person who just posted about drunk sex.] (12:09)

Twitter is like being in a room with your “friends”, saying something really loud, and hoping that someone hears you. (12:18)

Twitter is like having 10 IM windows open at once. (12:27)

George Costanza: “It’s like going to the bathroom in front of a lot of people and not caring.” Jerry: [pause] “It’s not like that at all.” (12:28)

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6 Comments

Thanks for posting these Pete. Interesting how a meme in twitter runs its course in just over 2 hours. Glad our gmail chat led to such fun and merriment. I must dare you more often.😉

2.Bill Drew | December 10, 2007 at 9:18 am

As an occasional user of Twitter, at times it is like that annoying buzz of barely audible speech you can not understand. It is also like the 60 cycle hum you get over cheap stereo speakers.

3.John | December 10, 2007 at 12:07 pm

I’ve been redacted!

4.Peter Bromberg | December 10, 2007 at 12:25 pm

John, I’m happy to unredact you if you like. I was erring on the side of “What happens in Twitter, stays in Twitter.” Hey, Twitter is like Vegas…🙂

5.Anonymous | December 11, 2007 at 9:30 am

Twitter is clique-ey.

6.Amy | December 12, 2007 at 10:00 am

Hey all!

I was involved in this meme from the beginning and in real time, and it was interesting to see how quickly it “played-out,” but also to see how it was acknowledged even while it was happeningthat it would be over in a few minutes.

This is the pro (and possibly the con) of Twitter – it happens FAST and in real time. In contrast to many memes that have gone around on blogs and lasted over a span of days or more, this one lasted mere minutes, and that is the nature of the “conversational” quality of Twitter.

There have been many discussions of late about Twitter and, as an avid user, I am finding them interesting. One post is on podcastingnews.com and is called, “Why Twitter Matters. Hint: It’s not because it’s popular from December 11. That post refers you to the recent on-going discussions about Twitter:http://www.techmeme.com/071211/p68#a071211p68

The jist of podcastingnews’ post is that the “conversation” has moved to Twitter, and is mostly being done by those responsible for “most” of the content being published on the web. In other words, a few high-impact people (in the web world) tweet a lot.

So, to anonymous who calls it “clique-ey” (which is sorta true actually), and others who say Twitter is a waste of time, silly, trivial etc., I say, for you, it may be, but if you build yourself a valuable network of people in your Twitterverse, as I have, then it isn’t.

Just like anything, not everyone will find it useful, valuable, enjoyable. If it makes your life better, great. If not, don’t tweet. it’s fine. Not all “2.0” technologies are or should be adopted by all.

Twitter “works” for me and I find it to be both valuable and enjoyable. Hence the response I gave which was that Twitter is like an inside joke b/c really, if you don’t “get it” it is really hard to explain!

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